Devil's Punch Bowl State Park juts into the Pacific Ocean eight miles north of Newport, isolated by the undulating Oregon Coast topography. Long ago, an immense rock cavern caved in, forming a frothing, bubbling bowl of waves.

During a quality storm, the water slapping into the bowl, combined with whipping wind, can form a cauldron like something out of Act 1 of Shakespeare's "Macbeth."

On a fine spring day, though, gentle thermals sustain the birds in flight, and float up the cliffs and over the picknickers. A surfer seeks great waves to no avail. Children climb trees and peer into tidepools full of mysterious, unearthly looking creatures. The marine gardens bloom.

Only a quarter-mile off bustling Highway 101, the little community of Otter Rock still feels like a hidden world, albeit one with an award-winning winery — the only one on the coast — and an outpost of the Mo's Restaurant chain of chowder houses, Mo's West.

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